Gavin Llewellyn | Digital marketing blog | One Too Many Mornings

Why did Facebook buy Instagram for $1bn?

Gavin Llewellyn on April 12, 2012 — 1 Comment

Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram for $1 billion on Monday took a lot of people by surprise. There’s usually rumours and conjecture surrounding such deals but this one seemed to come out of the blue.

As an Instagram fan I’ve taken quite an interest in this story. Whilst I’m not feeling particularly worried about the acquisition in the short-term, I am nevertheless feeling a mixture of apprehension and curiosity as to what Facebook has in store for Instagram.

Like many observers, I was a little shocked by the $1 billion valuation. Sure, Instagram has been growing rapidly (especially so after it became available on Android as well as iOS) and it’s a very popular, trendy application. But a BILLION DOLLARS?

However, it can be said that that a company is worth whatever someone is prepared to pay for it so here are some of my thoughts on the possible reasons behind the lofty price tag:

Staying ahead of the competition

In many ways, the acquisition of Instagram can be seen as a defensive strategy by Facebook.

Android users have been able to automatically upload their photos from their phones to Google+ for a while now and as a result Google’s social network has become very popular amongst photography lovers.

Buying Instagram could have been a good move for Google but Facebook got there first! Facebook now have the opportunity to enhance its photo-sharing functionality as well as attracting people who want to easily upload their photos directly to a social network.

Facebook is buying attention

Like most people, I have limited time and attention when it comes to social networking. If I’m not on Google+ then I might be on Twitter. And if I’m not on Facebook then I might spend some time on Instagram.

By acquiring Instagram Facebook has bought some of my attention and will potentially get me – and a share of the 30+ million other users – to spend more time on their social network.

Although Instagram hasn’t made any money itself to date, Facebook has recognised the potential of buying a social network in which users spend a lot of time uploaded, viewing and commenting on each other’s content.

The money to be made is therefore not in the photos themselves but in the time people will spend on Facebook (where users can be treated to the plethora of wonderful ads they get to see on their profiles and News Feeds!).

New data

Facebook relies on the data it gathers from its users to serve up the targeted ads that make up the bulk of its revenue. The acquisition of Instagram will now allow Facebook to mine new data that Instagram has gathered on its users.

And it’s not just new data that Facebook will be interested in. It’s also the type of data it will have access to.

Instagram will have collected a diverse range of data, from location, demographic and device type to time of day, who users are (biography) and to whom users share their pictures with.

Facebook will be interested in how this new, mobile-oriented social graph data can be integrated into its own so that it can continue to refine its current social networking experience.

Facebook is buying expertise

OK, so 13 people, however talented they may be, are hardly worth £1 billion. But nevertheless, Facebook will benefit from the expertise, drive and enthusiasm those guys possess.

But in addition to the people talent, Facebook are also buying themselves a ready-made photo-editing platform that they can now use to augment and improve their existing user experience.

As I mentioned before, Instagram photos themselves don’t make direct revenue but they keep people coming back. By having its own photo-editing platform, Facebook can make their own system more ‘sticky’ and stop people from running off to other social networks (such as Google+) where they might currently benefit from a richer photo-sharing experience.

Instagram is cool and fun!

On top of everything, there’s no doubting that Instagram is a very cool, fun and trendy social network and this will certainly have played a part in Facebook’s decision to buy it.

As Mike Krieger, Instagram co-founder himself has said:

“Instagram is about elevating our everyday lives into works of art”.

Facebook will benefit from their association with a hip, new, cool social network whose fans are switched-on and super passionate about telling stories and starting conversations around snapshots of their everyday lives.

And Facebook will also gain an advantage from acquiring a platform that is so intuitive and easy to use.

Whereas Flickr is a more formal experience (and one which is largely the domain of ‘real’ photographers), Instagram allows anyone, regardless of ability, to take ‘beautiful’ pictures and share them with their contacts and friends on multiple social networks.

This combination of a fun, enjoyable and easy-to-use photo-sharing experience makes Instagram a very attractive proposition. One that Facebook has paid a premium for an will hope to profit from in the long-term.

So where now?

Where Instagram goes from here is anyone’s guess and it’s certainly too early for me to make any predictions!

Will Facebook keep Instagram going as an entity in its own right or will it absorb it into the Facebook ‘system’? Will Instagram fans run off to competitors such as Hipstamatic, Lightbox and Picplz? Will the Instagram founders use their Facebook cash to set up another start-up, perhaps even an Instagram rival?

Only time will tell but whatever happens it will be interesting to see how the Instagram story develops.

Practice what you preach

Gavin Llewellyn on April 4, 2012 — 2 Comments

Last week I attended the Social Media World Forum (#SMWF) in London where I had the good fortune to watch a number of interesting keynotes and panel discussions. The highlight of the two days for me was Chris Brogan’s keynote presentation on day one. I’ve been a fan of Chris’s work for a few years now so he was one of the main draws for my attendance at the event.

Although I’d never seen Chris present live before I was confident he’d put on a good show and as expected, he didn’t disappoint. What I (and I’m sure the majority of the audience) liked most about Chris’s keynote was the common sense approach he took to the presentation and the relaxed yet professional style of his delivery.

Chris didn’t go into detail about social media tools or how develop a strategy. Instead he talked more broadly on how to do good business using using digital marketing, why it’s important to measure revenue (not ‘likes’!) and why it’s important to make your customer a hero.

They say “don’t meet your heroes”…

Well I think you should. Or at least try to!

Up until last week I hadn’t really met any real ‘heroes’ of mine (Paul McCartney, Richard Branson and Bob Dylan are still on my list!). But in terms of new media, marketing and blogging, Chris Brogan certainly fits into my ‘idols’ category.

Shortly after Chris’s presentation I plucked up the courage to introduce myself and we soon got chatting about everything from social media, Trust Agents, editing… and buddhism! Chris was friendly, generous with his time and appeared genuinely humble to meet an admirer of his work. If this was all the time I’d get with Chris I’d have been pretty happy.

But on the second day of the event at breakfast Chris walked into the restaurant… and chose to sit with me! I was a little taken aback at first but after some small talk we eventually got talking about some loftier issues.

For nearly two hours I had the fantastic opportunity to talk with Chris one-to-one. As well as giving me a run-through of his background and how he got to where he is today, Chris and I also spoke about business philosophy, entrepreneurship as well as our mutual affection for other thought-leaders such as Mitch Joel, Christopher S Penn and Julien Smith.

Human business works

In his blog, Chris Brogan regularly emphasises the importance of being helpful. Business is about building relationships, connecting with people on a human level and giving much more than you take.

What I learned from Chris, in addition to his experience and expert insight, is how to practice what you preach. Chris may have over 200,000 unique visitors to his blog, the same number of followers on Twitter and a growing following on Google+, yet he didn’t approach me with an ego or an attitude.

Instead Chris took the time to get to know me, my interests and ambitions and approached me as an equal.

Chris demonstrated how to do business in a ‘human’ way and how to put your ideas and philosophy into action.

7 key takeaways from SMWF 2012

Gavin Llewellyn on March 30, 2012 — Leave a Comment

Earlier this week I attended the Social Media World Forum (#SMWF) in Olympia, London. As the first big conference of the year I was looking forward to the event, especially so as the schedule included some big name speakers (stand-outs included Chris Brogan and Scott Monty from Ford) and many of the sessions promised some very interesting discussions and insights.

After a debrief and review of the two days, I’ve compiled a short list of some of my main observations, insights and learnings from SMWF 2012:

Design matters

This isn’t just about the visual style and design of an online channel (which is very important) but also the way in which processes are designed.

Social tools, for example, should be used as part of a business. Just as the marketing department shouldn’t have the only telephone in the business, they shouldn’t be the only ones responsible for managing social media.

Design also extends to one’s own website. Every website – regardless of who it belongs to – should have a conversion element to it. The goal should be to always let the customer know what to do next. This shouldn’t be executed by offering a plethora of choices but by making the customer experience clear and straightforward at every possible touchpoint.

Key source: Chris Brogan

Social media is becoming increasingly visual

With the emergence of Pinterest and the visualisation of Facebook, Twitter and Google+, it’s clear that social media is becoming increasingly visual by nature and will continue to be a key trend of 2012.

It’s long been agreed that brands are having to become publishers and creating and maintaining visual output will become another important facet to content creation.

Key source: Panel – The evolution of the conversation

The technology is not enough

As much as social media can be a boon for your business, one shouldn’t fall into the trap of believing that new technologies will magically solve a brand’s problems or suddenly bring in extra custom.

Just as buying in CRM software will not immediately allow you to form better relationships with your customers, social media tools are unlikely to help you ‘engage‘ your audience and spread your content virally.

To manage relationships and build successful communities online you must already possess key social/interaction skills. There are no short-cuts and therefore no amount of technology will make up for a lack of these core skills.

Key source: Panel – Managing online reputation via social media

Not all social media users are created equal

With the advent of frictionless sharing, brands such as the Guardian have been able to boost traffic to its Facebook app by allowing readers to opt in and share all articles they read with their Facebook friends.

Whilst some users are comfortable sharing content passively throughout their social graph, what about others that are more conservative?

Brands must consider the spectrum of users they’re engaging with on social networks and design for both the enthusiastic and conservative user.

Key source: Panel – Social media engagement measurement and metrics

Learn the art of storytelling

Storytelling is a vital skill and it will become increasingly important for companies to learn how to tell compelling stories about themselves.

Brands must focus on developing their ‘voice’ and telling the right stories to convey the messages they want to get across to the consumers they’re targeting.

In addition to this, companies should also consider creating stories based on the experiences of their customers. Why are people buying things from them? What are their stories about the brand?

Key source: Benjamin Ellis

Be smart with data analysis

Collecting and analysing data is an essential task for any digital marketer and with the huge amount of emphasis currently being placed on social media ROI, for example, it’s important to measure how effective your digital marketing efforts are.

But data analysis can be a double-edged sword. Whilst being able to collect a large amount of data is good, it can also pose problems, i.e. data overload. It’s important therefore to focus first on what you want to know and work backward from there.

One must also learn to dig a little deeper with the data received. For example, people aren’t always truthful in focus groups and the real art is in asking the right questions in the right context to get to the real answers you’re looking for.

Key source: Panel – Monitoring and measuring social media

Creativity and imagination are essential

Being on Facebook or having a Twitter account is no longer enough. Social media is finally making its way into the mainstream and more and more brands are getting to grips with the potential it offers.

As a result, brands must think of creative ways to inspire their customers and be imaginative in their approach to integrating social into their marketing and day-to-day business processes.

Scott Monty highlighted two campaigns that caught my attention: Fiestagram and Doug, the Ford ‘Spokespuppet’.

Both of these campaigns are fun, amusing and quirky in their own way but are also extremely imaginative and capture people’s imaginations. In today’s increasingly noisy digital landscape it will be those that are willing to experiment and try something different that will win out over other’s who simply ‘follow the leader’.

Overall, I took a lot away from the conference although at times I did expect a little more original insight from the many ‘experts’ in the keynote addresses and panel discussions. I felt at times I was hearing the same points made about social media I heard one, two and even three years ago.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed a number of the panel discussions and the highlight keynote address for me was Chris Brogan’s from the very first session of the first day. Chris delivered a smart, humous and thought-provoking presentation that I’m certain most people benefited from.

How about you? Did you go to SMWF 2012? If so I’d love to know which sessions you attending, which ones you enjoyed much and what insights you took away from the conference.

Pick yourself… and race to the top!

Gavin Llewellyn on March 21, 2012 — Leave a Comment

I’ve been a big fan of Seth Godin for a while now. From the moment I read Purple Cow I knew this was a guy worth listening to. And with 12 best-sellers and counting I’m clearly not alone!

I’ve just finished reading one of Seth’s more recent books, Poke the Box, which is more of a manifesto than a business book. It’s about encouraging people to initiate and start rather than waiting for someone else to give them permission to do so.

In this short video, Seth Godin chats with George Stroumboulopoulos about some of the philosophies that resonate throughout Poke the Box and many of his other books.

Pick yourself

From the outset, Seth declares that we’re in a ‘Forever Recession‘ – not a traditional, cyclical dip but one that heralds the end of the Industrial Age (a time when good people could make above average pay for average work).

Times are changing and it’s no longer possible for everyone to rely on being told what to do. If you want to write, sing, start a movement… you can. You don’t have to wait for approval. You can pick yourself.

Join the race to the top

Systemised factory work can now be automated and outsourced and if we continue to rely on these jobs we might just win the race to the bottom.

Instead, Seth encourages us to join the race to the top. By figuring out how to do something unique, interesting and noteworthy, people will find you and pay you more precisely because you’re not like everyone else and cheaper – you’re different and more expensive.

So, what are you waiting for! Don’t wait to be told what to do. Stand out and be remarkable!

The power of great content curation

Gavin Llewellyn on March 15, 2012 — Leave a Comment

Producing unique, original, valuable content can provide an individual or business with a distinct competitive advantage.

Great content can be used to establish thought-leadership, educate and entertain and is one of the most effective ways of building a loyal, interested following around a product or brand.

Whilst creating original content will always give you an edge in an increasingly noisy and competitive media landscape, content curation, the act of finding, collecting and showcasing other people’s content, can also be used to build authority and influence around a specific subject area.

Curate with care

On the face of it, curating content would appear considerably easier than creating it yourself and to a large extent that’s true.

However great content curation requires a careful appreciation of the subject matter, content type and the expertise and opinion-leaders that exist within an industry.

Throwing together random, unqualified content of varying degrees of quality isn’t a viable content strategy – it’s a mess! Just like a good art collection or library, effective content curation involves organisation and balance.

Focus on adding value

Great content curation is about filtering information and presenting it to a group of followers in a way that adds value. This involves a good understanding of your audience’s interests, needs and requirements and an awareness of the content that works best for them.

Content curation is also about offering your following a diverse range of content. Don’t just focus on text-orientated blog posts or articles. Consider sharing pictures, infographics and video, too.

By curating and sharing different types of content one can stand out from the crowd by offering something new and fresh.

Key content creation platforms

There is a variety of platforms that can be used to to curate and distribute content. Pretty much any social network, from Facebook to MySpace can be used as a viable content creation platform depending on the type of audience being catered for.

Here are a few platforms that I believe lend themselves very well to content curation:

Delicious

Although I initially started using Delicious as a bookmarking tool, I soon realised its potential as for curating interesting content from across the web.

Blogs posts, magazine articles and web links can be easily bookmarked and then shared using an extended URL, for example www.delicious.com/gavinllewellyn or www.delicious.com/gavinllewellyn/content.

Twitter

One of Twitter’s keys to success (and the main reason why I use it myself) is the ease in which you can re-share other people’s content.

Most of my tweets involve links to other people’s blog posts, pictures or videos as I attempt to position myself both as a thought-leader and as someone who highlights great content to share with my network.

Google+

Google+, like Twitter and Delicious, is brilliant for seeking out new, interesting stories. It’s important to not always only rely on the ‘big’ stories circling around the social web.

There’s a tendency sometimes for the same content to get shared around, especially when it originates from the ‘social elite’. As a result there’s often a necessity to curate the curators and manage the content we receive from others which will help us share a diverse range of information with others.

Pinterest, the newest kid on the social media block, has quickly built a massive following due to the simplicity in which anyone can organise and share pictures and video found on the web.

As a virtual pin board it’s incredibly easy to collect, curate and share content you couldn’t normally do on other platforms. This increases the opportunity of finding cool new content which can be then be passed onto to wider networks to give those followers a new perspective, too.

Curation is not a substitute for originality

Content curation is brilliant for determining the information we receive so that it can be filtered and distributed to others, demonstrating our knowledge and expertise in the niche or sector we’re operating in.

However, content curation should be used as part of a wider content strategy that is also heavily focused on original content generation.

Original, value-adding content is the foundation for inbound and social media marketing success, allowing us to build and earn people’s trust by giving them the opportunity to discover great content in a variety of social channels and platforms.

My 7 essential holiday iPhone apps

Gavin Llewellyn on March 7, 2012 — 2 Comments

Last month I had the good fortune to travel to Australia for a three-week holiday. Whilst I was away, I had limited internet access (I chose not to use 3G because of the roaming charges) and could only access WiFi in certain locations.

With limited internet access and a lot of travelling, I was forced to use my iPhone differently and came to rely on a just few essential apps.

Although I blogged about iPhone apps at the end of last year, this post is more about the experience of using an iPhone on an extended trip abroad and how good apps can help you stay connected, entertained and up-to-date.

Hootsuite

As my social media dashboard of choice on the iPhone, I first used Hootsuite to schedule tweets prior to my travels and then used it whilst abroad to check up on them as well as add new updates.

The great thing about Hootsuite is that I could access it via my iPhone or any other computer through a web browser, making my social media management convenient and hassle-free.

Instapaper

This was one of my most essential apps. Because of the amount of travelling I was doing, Instapaper was an absolute godsend as it allowed me to save a lot of articles and blog posts to read later when I was offline.

Although I’d often save posts by social media, business and marketing bloggers, I’d also save articles from newspapers and magazines about sport, news and culture so that I’d always have something different and interesting to read whilst I was out and about.

Foursquare

Although not quite ‘essential’, I like to check-in to different locations and it was fun to tag myself into new, ‘exotic’ places rather than the usual supermarkets and shopping centres I check-in to at home!

Checking-in to Foursquare (as well as Facebook Places) also encouraged others at home and abroad to offer me tips and ideas on what to see and travel to next.

Notes

I often use my smartphone like a notepad to jot down ideas and observations. Instead of using Evernote (with which I have sometimes had synching problems), I decided to use the much more simple native iPhone Notes app.

Because of its simplicity, it was easy to open and update my notes wherever I was – regardless of internet connectivity – without having to worry or wait for anything to load or sync.

Instagram

Along with Instapaper and Notes, Instagram was one of my most used apps and was brilliant for documenting my experiences through pictures (the picture for this blog post was taken by me in Sydney using Instagram).

The ability to capture a moment using a photograph and share it with friends and followers through Instagram and other social channels (Twitter, Facebook and Flickr) was fantastic and allowed me to tell a much richer story about my Australian adventures.

Facebook

I rarely use the Facebook iPhone app when I’m at home yet whilst I was on holiday it was great for staying in touch with friends and keeping them updated as to how I was getting on.

Many of my friends commented on my Instagram pictures as well as my Facebook Places and Foursquare check-ins and gave me advice on where to go next or what to do when I went somewhere new.

BBC News

Although we live in a far more connected world, I still found that I struggled to keep up-to-date with everything that was going on in Britain from Australian TV and newspapers.

The BBC News app was excellent at proving short, detailed articles on UK and world events so I could keep on top of everything that was happening in sport, business and entertainment.

What iPhone apps can you not live without? Which ones are essential to you when you go away?